


Forever My Friend

by Amandathehuman



Category: Homestuck
Genre: John Egbert befriends Karkat's Ancestor, M/M, Time Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-28
Updated: 2013-02-28
Packaged: 2017-12-03 20:58:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/702581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amandathehuman/pseuds/Amandathehuman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John and Karkat finally meet up on the Meteor after the long three year wait. But while they explore the many rooms in the Meteor lab, John messes with an old machine and time shenanigans ensue.</p><p>(Originally written in July 2012)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forever My Friend

The three years of waiting to meet Karkat was excruciating. Never before had John felt more excited when he could finally talk to his friends face to face. Jade and Davesprite were good company, but he had wished the meet up could’ve been quicker. But they were all finally back together with his friends, like a badly needed family reunion. Since the meet up, John’s big goofy grin had yet to fade. He was simply too happy, much to Karkat’s disgust. John had annoyed Karkat so much since the meet up. But he didn’t care. The two couldn’t even have a decent argument because John would break out in laughter, confusing the aggravated troll even more than he already was about the human race. The others must have not seen how Karkat hated John. Because right then and there, the human and troll were patrolling the labs together, as assigned by the Seer of Light. Karkat would like nothing more than to rip out John’s throat. Yet he didn’t, he couldn’t. He guessed it was because he did not hate John as much as he deluded himself into thinking.  
“Hey! What’s this?” John wondered out loud as they approached an open door. From the hall they were in, the two could see a machine through the door way. John looked at Karkat with his usual mischievous smile, the troll gave a scowl in return.  
“Don’t you even da-“ Karkat snarled, but it was too late. John was already half running, half flying to the room. The troll growled to himself and started running after his human friend.  
“Hey Karkat! Look at this!” John called to the troll who had just arrived to the door, breathless. “Looks like some kind of appearifyer or sendificator or somethin’!”  
“Don’t run off like that, fuckass” Karkat growled once he had caught his breath. The troll looked around the room. He watched as John played with the machine. Maybe he was making another batch of paradox clones? Karkat shuddered at the thought of it. Boredom creeped up on Karkat as John ran around, doing whatever derps like him do.  
“KARKAT!!!” John yelled, making the troll jump a little out of surprise.  
“WHAT?!” Karkat yelled back, stomping his way toward the human. He watched as John’s fingers gracefully ran across the keyboard at break neck speed. Karkat’s eyes floated up to the screen John was fixated on, it was his guardian on what it looked to a be date-scene with Rose’s guardian.  
“Take the wheel, Karkat” John ordered, his smile replaced with a determined expression. Whatever John was planning, it was obviously important to him or else he wouldn’t have ordered Karkat to do anything. Without thinking, the troll took John’s place and stared up at the screen. Off in the distance of the scene, Karkat could see a shady figure. Jack.  
“’Kay, press the button!” John ordered again. Karkat looked down at the key board and located a big red button. That must be the button John meant. The troll’s hand slammed down on the button as he turned to face John.  
“John what the fu-JOHN!!!” Karkat yelled as he watched his friend be sendificated to the scene. John had been standing on the platform to appearify and sendificate items to a certain point of time. And Karkat had just inadvertently send John into the past, a time where his guardian was still alive. The troll watched as John pointed at the sky, telling the guardians of the impending doom. He watched as Jack Noir got too close for comfort to the humans. Karkat didn’t wait any longer to bring John back as the winged dog was nearly on top of them. The Knight’s own hands running at an even faster pace than John’s hands, desperately trying to save the heir from an imminent death. Thankfully, Karkat was able to pull John out of there as soon as Jack sent out the Red miles. John’s warning, sadly, did nothing and red blood poured from the dead guardians nevertheless. A tinged of pity arose from Karkat’s thoughts as he turned around, expecting to see John back on the sendificator pad. He waited for the human to come back, but the pad remained empty. Fear crept upon the knight as he thought of the possibilities that he had just accidentally wiped John out of existence. Karkat whipped around to face the screen once more, grabbing the joystick to search for the missing boy. No longer was the screen fixated on the bloody mess, but in a place more familiar to Karkat.  
“Alternia…?” the troll whispered, for once, in wonderment. What had just happened?  
John had no idea what just happened. He was sure that he was in front of his Dad and Rose’s Mom, but as soon as he blinked, John somehow got transported to some desert. And it was dark, very dark with the exception of the green moon’s reflected light. But it was not a full moon, barely making a dent in the night’s darkness. Paranoia nipped at the back of his head, his eyesight had never been that great but no human could see in the dark without using night vision goggles! Even so, a shadowy figure could be seen in the distance. John wasn’t even sure if it was a person or some animal. The boy lifted his hood over his head, feeling some security while nestled in the cloak. John weighed the consequences of investigating the figure and staying put. He favored staying where he was but curiosity had overridden his fear and John found himself slowly floating toward the mysterious shadow. The heir’s eyes widened as he got close enough to the figure to see two nubby candy corn horns protruding out of the stranger’s hood. Suddenly, the person was no longer a stranger but someone familiar.  
“Hey Karkat!” John greeted his friend, he wondered why the hot-tempered troll was wearing a hood. Perhaps he finally got to god-tier? Had he appearified in the future, somehow? Karkat must have given him up for dead, instead of giving John a finger flip, the troll ran away. To be honest, John felt hurt, watching his friend abscond from him like he was a monster. He had to show Karkat that he wasn’t a zombie or a ghost or whatever monster Alternians were afraid of. The human flew after his frightened friend. Once he got close enough, John flew up into the sky, from there he could see a pair of glowing eyes looking up at him. John gave Karkat a friendly smile before landing in front of the troll, arms outstretched to catch the Alternian as he ran into the Earthling. John did indeed catch the usually grumpy troll, but he had not counted the other’s speed to be so great that it would make them fall over. John could help but to laugh as he held onto the troll, squirming to get out of the hug like always.  
“Hahaha, still not used to the hugs, Karkat?” John giggled, but the squirming did not stop, not even for a few profane words to slip out of the troll’s lips. The heir started to worry that his friend was seriously afraid of him. John sat up, still clinging onto the struggling troll. “K-Karkat…. It’s me! John!” the Earthling began as he placed one hand on the other’s head while leaving the remaining hand on the back. “Don’t worry, Karkat… I won’t hurt you! I’m your friend… remember?” John pleaded, his voice shaking a little. The troll stopped struggling and turned his head so their eyes would meet.  
“My name’s not Karkat….” The troll replied. Confused overwhelmed John, their eye contact lingered before the human broke it. He pulled his hands away from the troll and stood up, backing away from him.  
“You’re not… Karkat…” John echoed “His eyes… they’re different from yours…” but they looked so much the same. Perhaps it was so dark that John would be able to mix up his friends with strangers? But… no, that wasn’t it! John was completely sure that he was staring at a mirrored image of Karkat. But they weren’t the same either. As these thoughts whirled in his head, John paid no attention to his surroundings, the boy tripped on a rock sprouting out of the ground and fell over. Everything went darker than the night itself.  
The scent of a broth and the sound of bubbling liquid was what woke up John. The human slowly got up, his head aching as he did. He expected to be in a bed, but instead, he was in some kind of cocoon. It was big enough to fit at least two more people and there was some kind of green slime that he had been sleeping in. For a second, John freaked out, not knowing how he had got into the cocoon and why he was in it. But then he remembered the many lessons Karkat had tried to give him. Trolls sleep in something called sopor slime to calm their violent tendencies enough for a good night’s rest. Yet, he… the Karkat doppelgänger. The strange troll had been kind enough to bring in and care for a stranger. And one that was not of his kind either. John looked around, trying to find an exit to the cocoon. The boy found it, right above him. As he outstretched his arms to climb out of the troll-bed, John found out something that he really didn’t want to know. John was naked, not even his underwear was on him. The human’s face suddenly felt very hot. John peeked his head out of the cocoon’s small porthole, making sure the stranger wasn’t around to see the heir’s butt. But everything was fuzzy without his glasses. So John didn’t see a bigger troll enter the room as he grabbed his clothes from a chair they were sitting on.  
“It is good to see you are awake” a calm, female voice broke the silence. He couldn’t help it, John let out a scream so shrill, his father would shake his head in shame if he were still alive. The large troll jumped at the scream and clasped her hands over her ears to muffle the shriek. John took this chance to hide behind the troll-bed and put his clothes back on. But he was covered in slime, if the stranger was trying to keep his clothes dry from slime, then it’d be insufficient to put on his clothes while wet. The large troll was very quiet on her toes, John didn’t notice her until a towel was pushed in his face. The human took the towel and looked up at the female troll. She was averting her eyes, respecting his privacy the best she could.  
“Um…. Thank you….” John said as he began drying his body from the slime “Sorry… for hurting your ears”. The boy was so embarrassed that his ears were red as well.  
“You are welcome, and no need to say sorry” the woman replied “I should have not entered the room with you exposed like that…” she backed up and gave John the space he needed to dress. “But to be fair, there is nothing you have that I had not seen before”. If it were possible, John’s face would surely be a darker shade of red right then. But he was too embarrassed for another shade of red to be on his face. John peeked around the corner before walking into the open, fully dressed this time. The boy lifted his hood over his head once again, not wanting the adult troll to see his flushed face. But his embarrassment was washed away with curiosity, this was the first time he had ever seen an adult troll. Karkat had said that all the adult trolls of Alternia were off world, serving their race in some “glorious” conquest of the Universe. What was this troll doing on Alternia?  
“Is he awake?” a familiar voice called.  
“Yes my little one” the troll woman replied, stepping out of the younger troll’s way. The copied version of Karkat had his hood down and John could see in the faint candle like that he looked exactly like his friend. But their expressions were different. Karkat was always angry, but this troll looked at peace with himself.  
“Hello, John” the troll greeted the human, he even cracked a smile. Yup, this troll was definitely not Karkat.  
“Hi, sorry about that thing before, heh” John replied, scratching his cheek a bit as he returned the smile with his goofy grin. Or at least Karkat had said it was goofy.  
“It’s alright” the stranger assured John. Silence followed, there was no way to escape it unless someone broke it.  
“So… you know my name, what’s yours?” John asked. The boy troll looked up to the troll woman, as if asking for permission for him to give out his name. But the woman shook her head, names seemed to be something was earned in troll culture, not given. The boy troll nodded and turned back to John.  
“I am called the Signless” the troll boy replied. What an odd name, even for a troll.  
“Alright, nice to meet you, Signless!” John happily said. He stuck out his hand to shake Signless’ hand, but the troll only stared at it, confused of the gesture. John let out a nervous laugh and brought his hand back to his side. He had forgotten that doing something as simple as holding hands, even for a moment, was something provocative and reserved for the ‘redrom’. The human quickly turned to the troll woman, in an effort to keep another awkward silence away. “And you are, Miss…?” John asked, reminding himself to keep his hands to his side.  
“Maryam” the woman replied. She had the same last name as Kanaya, but she was obviously not the familiar, chainsaw-wielding troll John knew.  
“Nice to meet you too, Miss Maryam” John said with another smile.  
Karkat couldn’t believe how aggravating it was to get a stupid human back from the past. If he hadn’t sendificated himself to the past, this wouldn’t have happened. And now John was stuck on a primitive Alternia, fraternizing with long dead trolls. Though Karkat was just as confused as to why Signless looked like him, the agitated troll was too busy trying to get John back home to wonder about why there was an exact copy of him on the screen. If only Sollux was still alive, he’d be able to bring John back. But Karkat was on his own now and he couldn’t rely on his hacker buddy anymore. The troll decided to send John a message that he was working on getting the idiotic human back home. He didn’t like writing by hand, but he did it anyways, crumpled the message into a ball, and threw the message on the pad. Karkat bashed the keyboard and sent the message. For some reason, the sendificator was on the fritz and the machine made another jump in time. Instead of sending the message to the candle-lit scene, it sent the message to a point in time where John and the Signless had obviously made a friendship. But Karkat was able to get a bit of amusement, watching as the message bounced off of the human’s head.  
“YOU PSYCOTIC IDIOT OF A HUMAN. WHY THE FUCK DID YOU SEND YOURSELF BACK INTO THE FUCKING PAST. YOU DIDN’T EVEN THINK OF THE FUCKING CONSEQUENCES OF TELEPORTING YOURSELF BACK IN TIME DID YOU? WELL LUCKY FOR YOU, I’M GOING TO GET YOUR ASS BACK IN YOUR OWN TIMELINE. YOU BETTER KISS MY FEET AND WORSHIP ME LIKE THE GOD YOU KNOW I AM BECAUSE I AM YOUR FUCKING GOD. DON’T DO ANYTHING FUCKING STUPID. WAIT. YOU’RE JOHN EGBERT. SORRY I FORGOT THAT EVERYTHING YOU DO IS FUCKING STUPID” John smiled as he finished reading Karkat’s note. He was desperately trying to get the heir back home. Like a true friend would. Though he had no idea how bad Karkat was with computers, but a few more months on Alternia wouldn’t hurt.  
“Sounds like your friend is a little…” Signless began to say  
“Angry?” John finished for him.  
“Yes, angry is the word I was looking for”  
“Haha, he sure is! Ehehehehe” John laughed as he stuffed the note into a pocket “But he’s got good intentions and he cares about his friends a lot”  
“You wouldn’t know it after reading that letter”  
“Eh, you have to get to know him first, I thought he was a bit of a douchebag too when I first met him” The pair of now friends wandered the desert John had appeared in months ago. They were a ways from the cavern they and Miss Maryam called home. The mother had gone to the market and wouldn’t be back until sunrise. By now, John was used to sleeping through the day. The sopor slime helped him fall asleep as well. Though, it was still weird for him to be completely naked when sleeping with two other people. But as said before, the sopor slime helped him fall asleep. And every night was full of fun with the boys causing mischief and giving their guardian a headache. At first, John thought they were chasing away Maryam when she left for the market every night, but Signless had assured him that she was only going to work. Of course, by the time John was trusted enough, Signless gave him his real name. But John had never stopped calling the other boy ‘Signless’ out of habit. The nickname had stuck.  
“Hey, John! Catch!” Signless called as he threw a ball of cloth at the human. John smiled and slowed the ball enough for him to be able to catch. “No using the windy-thing! That’s cheating!”  
“Sorry! I forgot!” John replied and threw the ball back. The human had a strong throwing arm from years of throwing pies at his Dad. But he never had to catch anything, making his clumsy when receiving the ball. Signless caught the ball, using his whole body and not just his hands. The troll grunted at the strength of the throw but shook it off. He then threw the ball back at John, just as strong. As expected, John fumbled the ball, causing it to bounce and roll away.  
“Signless: 1, John: 0!” the troll called, laughing.  
“Just you wait! I’ll make you pay for that!”John called back as he went to retrieve the make-shift ball. But somebody had beat him to it. The human quickly lifted his hood over his head. Maryam and Signless knew what he was, John had explained it to them long ago. But Maryam had explained troll culture and Alternia’s society to John as well. The human knew the dangers of anyone else knowing of his existence. If he were found out, John would be executed or tortured through scientific experiments.  
“Well look what we’ve got here…” the intruder sneered “a blue blood and a lowblood playing together, how sweet” John could tell that the intruder was a highblood, not by what clothing he wore but by the way he carried himself. It was possible that he was a bit higher than blue blood, but John wasn’t sure as he couldn’t see in the dark that well.  
“Just give the ball back” John grumbled, avoiding to make eye contact. He didn’t want the highblood to see his face.  
“Hmn… how about… after you lick my shoes clean, sympathizer” the highblood replied, his grin visible to John due to the pointed white teeth.  
“John, the ball’s not worth it!” Signless called, keeping his distance from the highblood. Signless wanted nothing more than to punch the mean highblood, but he knew that would risk exposing his blood color.  
“Shut up lowblood!” the highblood snarled.  
“Know what? You can keep the ball, I wouldn’t want it after your grubby hands had been all over it” John replied, walking back to Signless.  
“Come back here! That’s an order!” the highblood hissed and threw the ball at John. The throw was weak, but by the sound of the grunt it was the best the highblood could do. John couldn’t help but laugh, even after the ball had bounced off his head. That is, until some more trolls emerged from the shadows. The highblood’s gang surrounded the duo, leaving no escape.  
“Looks like you two need to be reminded about how the caste works” the highbloods snarled. And with a snap of his fingers, the trolls rushed toward them, armed to the teeth. John whipped out his power, sending the vicious trolls far off in the distance. If he were alone, John could easily defeat all of the thugs. But the possibility of hurting Signless in the process scared him. They would have to be next to each other for the wind not to hurt the kind troll. The human was lifted quickly into the sky, leaving the trolls below snarling for him to come back down and fight. John flipped them off and flew to Signless, landing behind him. The troll whipped around, snarling and lifting his sickle to cut John down. But as soon as Signless identified John, he backed down and smiled. The smile, however, quickly faded into an expression full of pain as a troll thug raked his claw weapon down Signless’ back. He fell forward, letting John catch him and clung to the human, digging his claws into John from the pain. The battle needed to be ended, quickly. John really didn’t want to do it, but rage burned in him. The sight of his friend being struck down caused the human to let his heir powers to explode in full force. John kept Signless close to him, making a wind bubble around them for protection. The two watched as the wind slaughtered the thugs, leaving the highblood stunned with fear. When the last thug fell to his death, John’s powers evaporated and exhaustion began to settle.  
“John… you okay?” Signless asked, cradling the tired heir.  
“Y-Yeah… just…. tired” John panted as he slowly nodded. The human turned his head, watching the highblood run at them with a sword in hand. “Watch out!” John yelled, getting up as fast as he could, running to get in between the highblood and Signless. He screamed as he felt the sword cut into his hands as he stopped the blade from coming down on Signless.  
“You’re… you’re no blue blood” the highblood snarled, the higher troll watched as John’s blood dripped down the sword. The boy had no choice. Dark blue blood spurted onto John as he sliced his opponent’s neck open. Weight on the sword lessened as the fresh corpse fell on the ground. John listened to Signless as the troll came closer, standing next to the human.  
“You okay, John?” Signless asked as he grabbed one of John’s hand, gently.  
“I was able to stop the sword with the wind before it hit the bone in my hand, are you okay?” John explained as he looked at his friend’s back.  
“It only stings a little bit… let’s get back to the cavehive” Signless replied, guiding John back to their home.  
Once they got home, the two began dressing each other’s wounds. John wanted to take care of Signless’ wound first, but the pain of merely twitching a finger was too great for him. Signless caught this and demanded that John’s hands to be treated first.  
“Ow! That’s stings!” John yelped as the troll pressed on the wound. The boy quickly took his hand back from Signless, glaring at him for purposely causing him pain.  
“Sorry!” Signless apologized “It’s just… you really DO have red blood…” he grabbed a roll of bandages from a box on the table and moved toward John. The heir was reluctant to give his hand back to Signless, making the troll to grab John’s hand and pulled it towards him. The boy attempted to wrestle the troll ancestor, but Signless contorted his face in pain as he bent his back to get the hand back. John gave in quickly and allowed his friend to dress his wounded hands.  
“Heh, all humans have red blood, I already told you that” John replied as he watched the white cloth cover his wound.  
“I know, but it sounded so odd that I couldn’t believe it” Signless laughed as he finished dressing John’s other hand.  
“I felt the same when I found out that trolls don’t all have the same blood” the heir replied as he moved closer to the troll “Let me help you now” Signless lifted his arms and gritted his teeth in pain as John gently lifted his clothes off of him. The human took the bandages from Signless as he moved around the troll to sit behind him.  
“Bluh, your wound needs to be cleaned” John announced as he got up to get a bowl from the kitchen, coming back with water and a clean cloth in the bowl. Signless hissed as he felt the wet cloth dab against his wounds. After the wound was cleaned out, John grabbed the bandage roll again and began wrapping Signless’ body with the roll.  
“I wished trolls had the same blood color…” Signless whispered as John finished.  
“What?” the human asked, but he knew what his friend said.  
“If trolls had the same blood color, then there wouldn’t be so much strife in this world and the caste system wouldn’t exisit” Signless explained. John couldn’t disagree with that logic. Humans weren’t perfect, but they didn’t kill each other over their blood color.  
“Maybe there’s a bunch of other trolls out there who think like you…” John replied as he removed his own shirt, preparing to slip into the slime for bed.  
“You think so?”  
“Yeah! We could bring these like-minded trolls together and challenge the system!” Signless’ eyes widened as he imagined a world without having to worry about being culled because of your blood color or going into slavery related to your class. John smiled as he looked at his friend’s expression. The expression of hope. The human lifted himself to enter the troll-bed when he felt something tug at his foot.  
“Wait, John! The bandages will get ruined by the slime!” Signless said as he held onto John’s foot.  
“Oh! Whoops, hehehe, forgot about that!” John laughed “I don’t need slime to sleep anyways… but what about you?”  
“I… I can manage…” Signless replied looking at the ground. The human descended and placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. Signless looked up at John and couldn’t help but return the smile the heir was giving him.  
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep the nightmares away” John said, smiling. The two began grabbing a bunch of blankets and spreading them out on the floor, preparing for bed. John had explained the importance of wearing clothes during the night a few months ago. But Signless never needed nightclothes, so John let the troll borrow his shirt. The two settled in their ‘nest’ for the day’s sleep.  
“G’night, Signless” John yawned as his eyes closed.  
“You mean day” Signless laughed  
“Whatever…”  
“G’night John” Signless replied and closed his eyes. But he didn’t fall asleep right away, afraid of what kind of nightmares he would have. The troll lifted his eyes open, wondering if John’s eyes would be open too. They were not. Signless stared at the boy’s sleeping face. He looked kind of cute sleeping like that. It was a better look than the slime covered face he usually saw.  
“Psst… hey John…” Signless whispered “Are you awake?”  
No response.  
The troll’s face felt hot as he thought about the day he would confess his feelings to John. But he was afraid it’d ruin their morailigence. Maybe now would be a good time? Or at least practice for the real thing.  
“John… I have flushed feelings for you…” Signless barely whispered, rolling over and forcing himself to go to sleep. That was the most embarrassing thing he had ever done.  
John half opened his eyes, staring at Signless’ back. The boy didn’t know what to do, he had heard the troll’s confession. He should tell Signless what he told Karkat, that John could never return the feelings. Also, he felt he was too young to get into any romantic relationship. The heir felt as if he was growing up too quickly, which is what he never wanted to do. John lifted a hand and brushed Signless’ hair. It lingered a little before falling back to his side and returning to sleep.  
Signless yawned as he slowly woke up the next night, right as the moon began to rise. At first he wondered why he was on the floor, but his memory came back to him. The troll boy’s face became red again as he remembered the day before. Had John accepted his flushed feelings? Could they be in the redrom together?  
“Hey John” Signless began “You wouldn’t believe what kind of dream I-“ the troll cut himself off as he stared at what used to be where John had slept. Red tears formed in Signless’ eyes. His best friend had left. Leaving the troll rejected. “Why, John?… Why?”  
“OOF!!!” John grunted as he fell, unexpectedly. The human stood up, wondering if he had just been transported again and if so, where. John jumped a bit when he saw he was in a crowd of trolls. But none of them seemed to be interested in him. The heir took the moment to steal a cloak from a stand. He grabbed a nice blue one before slipping back into the crowd.  
“Hey, watch it!” a troll snarled when John bumped into her.  
“Sorry!” John apologized, bumping into more trolls in the process. After a few more bumps and pushes, John was in the front of the crowd. He fell to his knees when the last push was given, a few chuckles emitted from the crowd as he got up. John paid no mind to it as he stared at the scene in front of him. An adult troll was hanging from a pair of burning cuffs that looked like the symbol Karkat wore on his turtleneck shirt. John took a step forward, getting closer to a group of crying trolls at the base of the suspended troll’s torture device. He could only recognize one. Miss Maryam, Signless’ mother.  
“SIGNLESS!!!!” John screamed, lifting himself up in the air and flying toward his dying friend. He couldn’t let Signless die! He couldn’t let his friend die! John could hear the crowd yell in rage and cheer at the same time as he tried to use his wind powers to cut through the chains. But he wasn’t strong enough. Maybe if he was a knight, he could’ve cut it with a single motion.  
“John….” Signless could barely whisper.  
“Don’t worry Signless! I’ll get you out of here!!!” John cried “I’m sorry for leaving you like that!!! I’m so sorry!!!” the troll lifted his head enough to look into John’s eyes. He could see rage burning in Signless’ eyes. It scared him. “S-Signless…”  
“John, get out of here…” the troll growled. But John didn’t move, he wanted to free his friend. He wanted his friend to live. “GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE JOHN!!!” Signless snarled “THEY’LL FUCKING SHOOT YOU DEAD OR ENSLAVE YOU!!! LEAVE NOW!!!!” the troll wanted the same for John. He wanted him to be free, to live. He smiled as a flash of light emitted from John, leaving nothing but the cloak. He watched it fall down to his family.  
Karkat let out a victorious shout as he watched John materialize in front of him. It was tough to fix the sendificator/appearifyer in order to make it work again. And he was able to pull John out of the foreign timeline before he could screw up anything else.  
“You’re welcome, Egbert Human” Karkat laughed “Now try to remember who saved your ass when people start asking why the fuck we took so long!” but the victorious feeling faded away as soon as Karkat heard John’s soft sobs. “John?” the troll walked up to the crying human.  
“I c-couldn’t save him!!!” John cried “I-I couldn’t save Signless…” Karkat sighed and placed a hand on the boy’s back, rubbing it.  
“Don’t cry, it’s not your fault…” Vantas replied “I know ho-ASASHFISHDGJ JOHN!!!! GET OFF ME!!!” the troll snarled as John latched himself onto him. Karkat stopped complaining as he felt the human quiver with each breath that he took. It was somewhat endearing. Karkat cursed himself for even thinking of John as something cute. They were just friends. But… still… he couldn’t help but to cradle John. This was stupid, John wasn’t a wiggler. Yet, something inside of him wanted to give John as much comfort as he could. “It’s okay, John, don’t cry…” Karkat purred.  
“We…. We’ll always be friends, r-right?…. You won’t die on me?” John asked with a sniff. Karkat looked upon the sad human and couldn’t help but smile.  
“Of course, dumbass, we’ll be friends forever”


End file.
